Place Your Bets
by NotALoveSong88
Summary: 1920s. Beautiful year. When Austin meets the new flapper who works at the same joint as him, things are going to change drastically.


**Place Your Bets…**

_I met you once, I loved you twice that's the way this tale begins…_

"Hey Moon" says my manager as I walk into the bar. His Chicago accent was strong and bold which was attractive to lots of the girls in the area. Girls would swarm round him at night when the bar was open for business. It was called Big Jacks. Jacks being my manager. It was one of the biggest joints in the whole of New York, and one of the biggest for its illegal gambling. The police had attempted many times to bust us, but Jacks was smart, he could somehow always cover it up so soon they started to give up. Jacks was good at stuff like this, there had been rumours that he was actually on old member of the mafia but no one ever had the guts to ask him straight.

"Hey Jacks. What's going on?" I says as I pull up a seat near the bar where my friend Dezmond was working on preparing all the glasses for tonight. He nods his head to say hi since he knew never to interrupt Jacks when he was talking. Jacks was hard boiled. (1)

"We got a new hoofer (2) tonight, she's replacing that dumb Dora we hired last week who couldn't tell her left from her right"

"Alright then, where'd you find this dame then?"

"She's a friend of Trish's. I owed her a favour and she wanted to help the broad out so I'm giving her a shot. I tell you Moon, if this baby don't do it for the guys then we've got nothin."

"She good looking?"

"Haven's see her yet. She'd better show up soon or there's gonna be trouble" he takes one last sip of his whiskey before jumping off the bar stool and into his personal office.

"Dez, butt me" I sigh a he opens a box of cigarettes, I take the first one since it was a brand new box.

"Rough week?"

"Don't you know it. You know that broad Dina, she tried to get a job here right? So she pulls me aside later that night, Jacks turned her down, thought I could help so she gives me a cash (3) thinking I'd help her out. Told her to beat it, but she wont stop bugging me" I sigh, lighting the cigarette and inhaling deeply. "I'm sick of all there broads tryina use me to get in here"

"Maybe theys all just attracted to you" he replies sarcastically, laughing at his own comment.

"Pipe down" I laugh before putting the cigarette out in the glass ashtray on the bar and walking up to the stage.

Backstage would usually be a guys dreamland. There are 3 dressing rooms all packed with girls in short riskay items, and half the time there all willing to swing themselves at every guy that walks by. Like I said, the guys dreamland. But not mine. Far from mind. You see, when you've been working in the joint for around 10 years, you get bored of it. The girls seem less attractive everyday. The clothing is less surprising when you see them in it everyday, and honestly the smell… so many different brands of perfume mixed together soon makes you feel ill and if you work here long enough you soon start to loose your sense of smell its so bad. Don't get me wrong here, I still love my job, singing in front of the crowd is my dream job, I'm just not a fan of the things that come with it.

"Hey Austin" calls a voice. I turn my head to see Cassidy leaning against the door frame to her dressing room. There's a tone of giggling inside, obviously listening eagerly to whatever conversation she was wanting to start.

"Hey Cas" I say, turning my head back around and starting to walk away since I wasn't interested in whatever those girls had to say today.

"Wait" she says rushing forward as fast as her heels would take her. She moves in front of me, blocking my way. Her hair was pinned up, only leaving a few loose curls, her dress was black with tassels overlapping each other, like every other girls dress except she made a point to make sure hers was shorter at the leg and lower cut at the top. A set of long pearls laid loosely round her neck.

"Do you think you could do me a favour sweetie pie and clip this in my hair" she says as seductively as she can, handing me a black feather with a clip at the end. I sigh as I lift it up to her head and clip the feather to her headband which was already round her head.

"Was that so hard" I say as I walk past her. Me and Cas had worked here together for the same amount of time and everyday of our working lives she always tried some plan to be close to me. No matter how many times I pushed her away she wouldn't leave me alone.

"When I finally reach my dressing room, which was personal so I didn't have to share with anyone else, I headed straight for my bottle of scotch on the dressing table. Pouring myself a glass I collapsed down in my chair, hoping for some personal time to relax…

"Hey Austin" shouts a voice before Dez comes rushing into my room. "You have to see the new doll workin' here" he pants, I guessed he had run all the way from the bar to here.

"Why? You stuck on the doll already?" I laugh, taking a sip of my scotch.

"I think I might be. She's a baby vamp (4) I tell ya, and her chassis (5)…" is all he can say as he gets distracted.

"Alright then" I sigh, putting my glass back down on the table and getting out of my chair. I walk off with Dez, prepared to see the girl that had stolen her heart in just a matter of seconds.

I had no idea what I was getting into…

**Hey guys, so in case you didn't realise this story is based in the 1920's so I decided to use some of the slang from the time and I'll always tell you guys at the end of the chapter what some of the more confusing words mean…**

**1. Hard Boiled- a tough guy.**

**2. Hoofer- Dancer**

**3. Cash- a kiss**

**4. Baby Vamp- an attractive female **

**5. Chassis- female body.**

**Alright, please tell me what you think of the story!**


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